After previously stating Senate Republicans had no plans to push ACA repeal legislation this year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Reuters on Oct. 17 the GOP may attempt another push to replace the legislation if they win enough seats in the midterm elections next month.
Republicans attempted to overturn the Obama-era legislation in 2017 but ultimately failed. Mr. McConnell told Reuters the failure to overturn the law is "the one disappointment of this Congress from a Republican point of view."
"If we had the votes to completely start over, we'd do it. But that depends on what happens in a couple weeks. … We're not satisfied with the way [the ACA] is working," he said.
Republicans have repeatedly criticized the ACA as a costly, unneeded intrusion on Americans' healthcare. Those critiques have also been heralded by President Donald Trump, whose administration has favored dismantling the law, which has provided health insurance coverage to roughly 20 million Americans, Reuters reports.
Mr. McConnell also told Reuters that entitlements, which include social programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, "are the long-term drivers" of the fast-rising national debt.
"We all know that there will be no solution to that, short of some kind of bipartisan grand bargain that makes the very, very popular entitlement programs be in a position to be sustained. That hasn't happened since the '80s," he said. "But at some point we will have to sit down on a bipartisan basis and address the long-term drivers of the debt."
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